Be enchanted by world-renowned violinist and composer Mark O’Connor as he debuts with SCO

Singapore, 21 May 2014 (Wednesday) – The recipient of two Grammy Awards and eight Grammy nominations, renowned American violinist and composer, Mark O’Connor, debuts with SCO to present an evening of beautiful music with the violin and Chinese Orchestra! This uniquely east-meets-west concert is presented by SCO in collaboration with Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay. The concert will be held on 5 July 2014 (Saturday), 7.30pm at Esplanade Concert Hall. SCO Music Director Tsung Yeh conducts.

Mark O’Connor is a versatile violinist who performs genres including bluegrass, jazz, country and classical music, as well as a prominent composer and music educator. Being a child prodigy, Mark O’Connor had brought home numerous national awards since he was a teenager, with his outstanding performances on the violin, guitar and mandolin. In 1996, his first recording for the Sony Classical record label, “Appalachia Waltz”, featuring his compositions was released. The album, a collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and jazz-oriented double bassist Edgar Meyer, had impressed many and gained him recognition internationally. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mark O’Connor is “one of the most talented and imaginative artists working in music – any music today.”, and has “crossed over so many boundaries, that his style is purely personal.” He has also developed a string instrument technique, The O’Connor Method, which is greatly utilized by music teachers and students.

Mark O’Connor will play with the SCO three of his own compositions: Strings and Threads Suite, Olympic Harvest and Fiddle Concerto Movement III. Fiddle Concerto was Mark O’Connor’s first composition, written when he was 31, and has since been performed worldwide. Strings and Threads Suite, comprising 13 tunes, mirrors his family’s journey as they migrated from Ireland and Holland to America. The “strings and threads” musically describes how folk music styles hundreds of year apart are interconnected – processing a common thread – from an Irish reel to jazz. Olympic Harvest is a celebratory piece of composition, filled with vibrant music. Mark O’Connor had also incorporated a tune he composed for the closing ceremony at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games as the subject of this piece.

SCO will also perform Queen Anne’s Revenge, Mark O’Connor’s composition written in memory of discovering the “Queen Anne’s Revenge”, a Blackbeard’s ship, which had gone missing for almost 300 years; the sixth movement of Americana Symphony: Splendid Horizons, also composed by Mark O’Connor, as well as The Ceilidh, written by our local composer, Eric Watson. What’s more, the concert will present Tan Dun’s Suite for Chinese String Instruments, a music piece which showcases the skills of various unique traditional Chinese string instruments, exhibiting a mysterious, open and great momentum.

A Night with Mark O’Connor concert will bring you through a charming East-meet-West musical journey – an experience not to be missed!